An interesting union.
After Chelsea, a restart was needed
Graham certainly deserved a promotion during his time at Brighton – the manager transformed the Seagulls into a formidable and promising project, which De Zerbi then took to a new level. Only Potter found himself at Chelsea during the most troubled period possible – and after that it took him a long time to recover. He was invited by the new owners, who had only been at the club for a few months at the time. The specialist began working with the team that Roman Abramovich had assembled – and during the season he faced a global restructuring. Little by little, the Boeli couple got rid of everything that reminded them of the club’s previous owners. The same goes for the composition: large-scale purchases began in winter.
Potter was fired after failing to quickly turn a recruiting team into a team. The manager was deprived of a solid foundation in the form of a successful team, they bought players for different positions – and parted ways with him when he could not achieve the impossible. It’s a hard blow for the coach. And it makes sense that after that, Graham needed time to recover.
The England specialist has been unemployed for almost two years – although rumor has it he could end up in the England national team, Manchester United and Crystal Palace. Among a series of offers, the mentor opted for West Ham.
West Ham got burned with Moyes’ successor
Yet Graham and the Hammers have something in common: They’ve also been burned by their alumni. David Moyes’ time at the club has been truly enormous. He is the coach with whom West Ham broke into European competition and even won the Conference League. After this long and beautiful story, I wanted an equally beautiful sequel: the former coach of the Spanish national team and Real Madrid, Julen Lopetegui, was chosen as the Scot’s successor, and he was supported by the transfers.
They hoped that the Londoners would fight at least for the European Cup – from fifth to seventh place. In fact, in the first six rounds they only had one win, dropping points even against Everton and Leicester. After 20 rounds under Lopetegui, West Ham were in 14th place. I had to make an extremely unpleasant decision. The Spanish coach showed results in clubs of modest size – the same Sevilla. But the last year with the Mingians did not work out – and since then Hulen has not returned to his previous level. The Hammers management had to admit that they had miscalculated their choice of coach.
Ready to bet on controversial footballers
The Londoners currently have two candidates to strengthen on their short list. The club wants to loan Ansu Fati from Barcelona and Marcus Rashford from Man United. Both are controversial actors who give no guarantees.
Fati has not coped with the status of Messi’s successor and has been suffering from injuries for a long time. In the Catalan club, the winger gradually lost his place in the main team – last season – the “blue garnets” decided to look for a loan team for him. This is how Ansu ended up in Brighton. The problem is that even a business trip to a team where they trust young people and take care of their players did not help to get back in shape. The 22-year-old winger continues to suffer from injuries and had played only four La Liga games in January. Flick is definitely not counting on Fati. As for Rashford, he has his head in the clouds for the second season. Two years ago, he was an example of professional and human qualities, but since then the situation has changed radically. The stagnation on the field was striking – the winger stopped scoring as before and got lost. And over time, rumors of violations of the regime, parties, etc. began to circulate. Ten Hag grumbled, but stubbornly believed in the winger – but Amorim decided that it was time to shake the Englishman. The damage is over, Marcus lost his place at the start. And judging by Diallo’s progress, it will be extremely difficult to return. It was noted that Italy was interested in the winger, but perhaps the footballer would not want to leave Foggy Albion. And West Ham is an opportunity to look at the Premier League from a different angle.
The question is to what extent these newcomers will personally help West Ham and Potter.
The perfect club for Graham
During the long vacation, Potter managed to miss football – and now he comes to a club that can suit him. Yet the manager succeeded with a modest squad, which wreaked havoc thanks to an innovative approach. Brighton never had much money – but the club was excellent at finding young talent and knew how to develop them, later making money from sales. A club with such an ethos suited Graham much better. The coach prepared individually for each opponent and the team showed results.
When the manager moved to Chelsea, higher class players became available and they were able to bring in any reinforcement – that’s a huge plus. But the pressure was incomparably greater. There was almost no time to prepare for each opponent – the team had to succeed in European competitions and in the national championship. No longer a bloated app.
Now Potter is at a normal club in the most positive sense of the word. He himself believes in the rightness of his choice. At West Ham you won’t need to train less than 40 people and rack your brains over how to form a starting team and who to refresh the game along the way. There won’t be such pressure, but there will be enough resources to aim for a place in the European Cup.
Potter
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